Foreword 



given over to idolatry and fetishism, superstition 

 and cruelty, and so it remained for over another 

 decade and a half after Speke's discovery. 



At the present time this country, undreamed of 

 sixty years ago, has been for eighteen years part of 

 the British Empire. A great change has come over 

 the land and its inhabitants. With a native popula- 

 tion estimated at some three and a half millions, at 

 least half a mJllion are said to be adherents of the 

 Christian religion in one form or another, and 

 probably half that number have been baptized. 



Summoned by H. M. Stanley, when he visited 

 Uganda in 1875, the Church Missionary Society 

 sent out missionaries in 1877, who worked with 

 devoted zeal among the benighted people, and two 

 years later the French Roman Catholic missionaries 

 arrived and did good work, though unfortunately 

 the two systems were somewhat bewildering to the 

 natives, and there was great antagonism between 

 the rival churches. 



Under the terrible persecutions of 1884 and 

 1885 these poor native Christians passed through 

 the fires for their faith. They were no self- 

 interested converts, leaving their old superstitions 

 for gain or advantage. They accepted the message 

 delivered to them as from God Himself; and like 

 slaves freed from bondage, were zealous to show 

 their gratitude by spreading the good news. They 

 emulated the courage of the early Christian martyrs, 

 and were not ashamed of the Cross of Christ, but 

 rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer and 



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